As You Wish
by hatondog
Summary: Inspired by SyFy's sneak peek of the upcoming holiday episode.  In the wake of an argument with Zane, Jo gets an involuntary taste of life as a fairy tale princess. Last chapter is revised to add a nod to the laws of physics courtesy of AllyrienDM  thx!
1. Chapter 1

As You Wish (Chapter 1)

**A/N: This was sparked by the animated Jo in the sneak peek for the holiday episode. **

**Don't own Eureka. Also have deleted the phrases "cancelled", "hiatus" and "series finale" from my vocabulary. **

Although it contained the usual number of hours, Jo felt this particular Monday might never end. It had started badly and failed to improve as the day wore on.

The morning had begun with her idling in her car outside of Zane's townhouse before dawn. He had a flight to catch for his first post-pardon business trip since returning from the failed mission to Titan. Despite having spent the weekend arguing with him, she'd promised to drive him to the airport.

She'd never admit it to herself, much less Zane, but Jo felt compelled to see him safely into the air. She'd been driving away from Eureka when the Astraeus launch went disastrously wrong. The lives of everyone aboard had hung in the balance for days before they'd finally been rescued. Intellectually, she knew her presence at the mission launch site couldn't have altered the outcome, but a tiny voice of superstition told her otherwise. So here she was, waiting for Zane, their coffees-to-go getting cold.

Annoyed beyond words at his lateness, she slammed out of the car. A note was taped to his front door with her name scrawled across it. She snatched it and began to read:

_I told you this would be easier if we just lived together. Instead of sitting in a cold car, you could have spent the morning like a princess-wrapped in my arms, a warm blanket and a hot shower._

_Figured two days of fighting about it was enough for now. Took a cab to the airport. _

_See you when I get back. _

_Love, Zane_

Speechless with indignation, Jo crumpled the note into a ball and threw it across the porch. "Princess, my ass," she sputtered. "You arrogant, thoughtless jerk-". She was nearly to her car when her sense of responsibility kicked in. Things were bad enough without adding littering to the day's events. Sighing, she went back up the porch steps to retrieve the discarded note and shoved it into her coat pocket. It was going to be a long day.

By its end, all Jo wanted to do was grab some dinner then crawl into bed. It seemed that everyone had been out of sorts today, as if the tedium of documenting the Astraeus mission failure was sucking the energy out of GD. Petty arguments broke out among even the most congenial co-workers. An unexpected inspection by General Mansfield put Jo's staff on edge. As its ground commander, Henry was taking the brunt of the DoD's ire over Astraeus' loss. Having been the ship's captain, Grace was under pressure as well, which made them both snappish.

Even Carter was unusually cranky, Allison having taken the kids for a long overdue visit with her mother. Several days of undiluted exposure to SARAH and Andy's AI love affair had ruined his appetite. So Jo wasn't surprised to find him unenthusiastically pushing food around his plate at the newly rebuilt Café Diem's counter.

"The happy computer couple getting on your nerves?" asked Jo sympathetically. "Yeah, not that I'm not happy for them, but all that cooing is really…" Carter stopped speaking as he turned toward Jo, but his mouth didn't close. As he stared, conversation around the restaurant sputtered then stalled. Coming through the kitchen door, Vincent stopped so quickly that the burger he was carrying slid off its plate. He didn't notice.

"What?" asked Jo, looking around in confusion. "Um, Jo…is there a costume party tonight I don't know about?" Carter had found his voice, but it was tinged with wonder. "Of course not," she sighed. "What are you talking about?" "About _this_," he answered, waving a hand up and down her figure. Following his hand with her eyes, she looked down. "This _what_-".

She stopped as if choked. What she saw was so surreal that her first reaction was to blink hard and shake her head. If she was dreaming, this would be a good time to wake up. Instead, she spun toward the plate glass window of Café Diem to check her reflection.

Jo was dressed like a princess straight out of a Disney fairy tale. A royal blue ballgown skirt fell in a bell shape from her waist to the floor. Above it, a silver lame bustier clung to her curves, ending below her throat in a sweetheart neckline. A chiffon cape swirled around her shoulders. Most astonishingly, a rhinestone-studded tiara was perched perkily on her head, a large pink stone embedded at its peak.

Carter appeared behind her in the glass. "So, getting ready for Halloween early?" he asked. "Carter, I did _not_ put this on. I came here straight from work. I was wearing _work_ clothes—you know, black suit, black shoes and _no_ rhinestones." Murmurs had sprung up behind them. One brave but foolhardy soul dared a half-hearted wolf whistle. Jo whirled around, automatically reaching for the weapon that was usually tucked beneath her jacket. But when she whipped her hand up, it held only a twinkling scepter.

As giggles spread through the room, Carter grabbed Jo's elbow to steer her out the front door. A passing car swerved, recovering just before it would have clipped Carter's jeep. "This is _ridiculous_," Jo ground out. "Not to mention impossible. Even in Eureka, costumes don't just materialize on people." She threw the scepter away. It bounced, then returned to her hand.

Jo and Carter exchanged incredulous looks. Eyes wide, she slowly reached up to pull the cape from her shoulders. It floated to the ground, where it stayed for only a second before sweeping back onto Jo. "What the _hell_?" she gasped.

She narrowed her eyes at Carter, who was valiantly trying to stifle a laugh. "Carter, I can't go around dressed like this. I look like an idiot and _Mansfield_ is in town. He's expecting to meet with me in the morning. With _me,_ not Cinderella!"

Pressing his lips together, Carter got control over his amusement. "OK, we'll fix this." At Jo's raised eyebrows, he amended his statement. "Well, maybe Henry can fix it. Let's find him." He opened the passenger door of his jeep.

As Jo approached, he couldn't resist giving her a deep bow. "Your highness," he grinned. The effect of her glare was diminished significantly when she had to pull her sweeping skirt up into the car by handfuls. Carter reached to help, then jumped back when Jo swatted at him. By the time he settled into the driver's seat, the dress was inside, puffed around Jo like a satiny cloud. She refused to talk, staring silently out the windshield until they pulled into Henry's driveway.

He and Grace threw open their front door, having been alerted by a text from Carter that Jo needed their help. Even so, neither was prepared for the sight of Jo stepping from the jeep, tiara glowing in the reflected porch light. "Jo?" Grace asked doubtfully.

Jo held her hand up to forestall further questions. "I didn't put it on. It just _appeared_ on me. And I can't take it off—ANY of it." At their shocked expressions, her voice softened. "Help me…please."

Her pleading broke the spell. Henry, Grace and Carter began a business-like debate of options for demoting Jo from her princess status. It was a short debate, the available choices for removing apparently sentient clothing being non-existent.

"Fine. So if we can't figure out how to stop whatever is going on, let's work out how it started," Carter suggested. "Who would want to make you look…" he struggled to find the least offensive adjective. "Ridiculous?" asked Jo dryly. "Like a princess," Henry interjected. "Beautiful," added Grace.

"And who is even capable of doing something like this? I mean, this is pretty far out there—magical ball gowns?" asked Carter. "Well," mused Henry. "It would have to be someone who is familiar with the creation and dissolution of matter. Which would require knowledge regarding the behavior of elements and their combination into…" Henry trailed off, eyes meeting Grace's.

"What?" demanded Carter. Henry cleared his throat, shooting a cautious look at Jo. "Well, elements that are present in all matter combine to form particles. Which, in turn, combine to form matter. So if you know…".

"Particle physics." Jo said flatly.

"_If_ it's really possible to do this," Henry gestured toward her dress. "I think we can assume it's _pretty _possible," Carter responded wryly.

"So if anyone could find a way to make clothes appear on their own, it would be a particle physicist. That's what you're saying, isn't it?" Jo's tone bristled with anger. Henry just nodded. She flailed her arms in the air, rustling the cape. "I am going to KILL him. No, I'll maim him first, then I'll kill him...".

Carter broke in. "Jo, we don't know for sure it's Zane…". "Really?" Jo yelped. "Carter, _look _at me. Who else would do this?" Carter took in the sight of her. She looked like a brunette Barbie doll. Forcing his eyes not to linger, Carter registered that Zane had been thorough in his remake—it appeared as though he'd even included a push-up bra in the wardrobe.

A buzzing sound caused them all to pull out their PDAs. Carter, Henry and Grace shook their heads while Jo patted her hands over the gown. Huffing in surprise, she pulled her PDA from a hidden pocket. A text appeared on the screen below Zane's name:

_Arrived OK._

Jo bit her lip. If Zane was the particle physicist responsible for her royal transformation, surely he'd be gloating now? The PDA buzzed again.

_Forgot to tell you something. You should get home before midnight._

Jo punched in a quick reply.

_Why?_

Zane responded immediately.

_Might have slipped up a bit—could be pumpkin time for your car. _

Growling out loud, Jo punched the keys so hard the phone nearly flew from her hand.

_You JACKA—_

Her finger slipped, hitting send before the epithet was complete.

_Sorry, will make it up to you w/ glass slipper IF you reconsider the moving question. _

_Ask yourself: would you rather just look like a princess or live like one?_

_Prince Charming_

She threw the phone down. "It's Zane," she ground out through clenched teeth. "Take me to the airport, Carter. No, wait, we have to stop in my office first. I need a gun." She stomped away, muttering. Carter followed, calling after her. "Jo, wait…how are you even going to fit into an airplane seat with that on?"

Grace picked up Jo's discarded PDA, read Zane's message then extended it to Henry. He scanned the text and grinned. "Ah," said Henry. "The course of true love never did run smooth." "Well," Grace answered. "At least she gets a nice tiara out of the deal." After a beat, they both broke into laughter and started to their car. Undoing Zane's bit of Eureka magic might be impossible without his help, but the effort would nothing if not interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

As You Wish (Chapter 2)

Jo stood in front of the mirror in a GD bathroom, truly relieved that it was after hours. The walk through the rotunda to Grace's lab had been embarrassing enough without the hallways being packed too. Although he maintained his normally stoic expression as they passed, she could have sworn the front desk guard snapped a picture on his PDA before the elevator doors closed. Even if he had the good sense not to post the shot online, she had no doubt the PDA would soon be making the rounds.

While Henry and Grace set up a scanner to examine her princess garb, Jo escaped to the restroom to study her image in more detail. With a snort, she realized that the prominence of her cleavage alone pointed to Zane's involvement. Patting herself, she quickly confirmed that everything visible and what little was covered was real and not the product of some juvenile fantasy. If he'd somehow altered her body as well as her clothing, she'd have to track him down then shoot to kill.

Stepping back, her eyes moved from the pink stone of the tiara to the sparkly (yet surprisingly comfortable) shoes on her feet. Her makeup was subtle—not the simple lip gloss she'd applied that morning, but nothing she wouldn't have usually worn. Grudgingly, she gave Zane points for the implied compliment in the absence of false eyelashes and brightly hued lips he could have added.

The dress, while hardly understated, was femininity itself. The skirt flowed to the floor in shimmering folds that almost begged for movement. With a quick glance at the door, Jo tentatively twirled, watching the hem of the skirt rise and fall as she turned. Smiling, she spun faster and gasped as the skirt's fabric gave off an iridescent glow.

She stopped to look again at her reflection. Her smile faded as she wondered if Zane had imagined her like this out of admiration or discontent with her usually severe appearance. Frowning, she shook her head. She really couldn't believe that he wanted to be with a girly girl or damsel in distress—if they were well matched at all, it was because they were equally independent.

_Damsel in distress_…a memory flickered. After the rescue of Astraeus, Eureka had been flooded with DoD personnel intent on both investigating and covering up the mission's failure. Bored with their assignment to a remote outpost of the Oregon woods, many turned to Café Diem's liquor supply or brought their own to impromptu parties around town. Jo spent several nights dragging incoherent revelers out of far-flung corners of GD.

One DoD intelligence officer put himself in Jo's path at every opportunity. The guy was handsome, with military grooming and bearing that would have once appealed to her. At first he was lightly flirtatious and accepted her rejections with rueful grace. After a couple of days, though, his come-ons became more persistent. As she shooed a rowdy group from a closed lab one night, he lagged behind. When Jo turned to tell him to go as well, he backed her against the hallway wall and tried to grope her.

Before she could deliver the knee to the groin he so richly deserved, the guy paused in response to a tap on the shoulder. With a single punch, Zane put him down, sending him skidding across the floor to come to rest in a sodden lump.

"What the _hell,_ Zane?" Jo hissed. She grabbed his arm and began dragging him away from the moaning officer. "He could file an assault complaint against you for that cave man move—what were you thinking?"

"Hey, the asshole had it coming. If you remember correctly, he had you pinned up against the wall. I was just protecting you." Zane pulled her to a stop. "Unless, of course, you liked what he was doing. In which case, by all means, don't let me stop you—carry on."

Stepping forward until their faces were nearly touching, Jo snarled, "I don't _need _you to protect me. This isn't some fairy tale and I'm not a damsel in distress. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you."

Without moving, Zane spoke quietly. "I know that. But if you expect that I'll just stand by while some guy molests you, we have very different ideas about what being together means. We're supposed to take care of each other, right? You have my back, I have yours?" When she didn't answer, he stepped back. "Great. Fine. Maybe I'm the one living in a fairy tale."

They were interrupted by the appearance of the DoD officer being escorted by a member of Jo's security detail. The horndog was muttering about pressing charges against the driver of the truck who'd hit him. When Jo turned to urge Zane to disappear, he was already gone.

Three days later, the argument resurfaced in the context of Zane's insistence that they move in together. Jo dug her heels in, arguing that it was too soon. By the end of the weekend, he'd flown away and she was stuck looking like the literal embodiment of someone who actually believed in happily ever afters.

Sighing, Jo decided to use the facilities before returning to Grace's lab to see what progress she had Henry had made. As she stepped into the stall, another problem immediately presented itself. Reaching the toilet would require her to rotate herself and the dress in a space not big enough for the both of them. She backed out to consider an angle of attack, cursing Zane and her last bottle of water.

Finally, Jo decided on a backward maneuver. Pressing the sides of the skirt together made it into an oval narrow enough to wedge into the stall. As she backed in, she pushed it up behind her and sat quickly. But when she released the skirt to do what she'd come for, it popped back into its hoop configuration. Fabric flowed everywhere around the space and into the adjoining stalls. Groaning, Jo gave thanks again that an audience wasn't present for this scene. She'd had enough of playing dress-up and was more than ready to accept whatever solution Henry and Grace might propose.

The dress, however, apparently wasn't finished with their adventure. When Jo rose to leave, she found she could only get as far as the stall door. The backside of the dress had fallen over the toilet tank, allowing the hem to become wrapped around the pipes below.

Pulling on the dress only established that its magical properties extended to being indestructible. The fabric simply wouldn't budge or tear. When she reached back to untangle it, the sides of the skirt sprung out, blocking her path. She was stuck, prisoner of an unhappy marriage between vintage style and modern plumbing.

Banging her head against the door, Jo almost missed the buzzing of her recovered PDA. Yanking it from the folds of the dress, she saw a text from Grace, asking where she was. "_Restroom—need help!_" Jo responded. Shortly after, she heard Grace rush in.

"Jo, where are you? Are you all right?" Grace called. Pushing back against the dress, Jo made enough room to pull the stall door open. "I'm stuck," she said in a small voice.

For several long moments, Grace stared at Jo but said nothing. Then she raised a finger in the universal sign for "wait" and left the restroom. A muffled whoop of laughter followed by giggles came from the hallway. Eventually, Grace returned, expression solemn due to a commendable if tardy exercise of willpower.

"It's the plumbing," Jo said through clenched teeth. "The dress is caught on it." In a response that did honor to the concept of female solidarity, Grace kneeled on the floor of the adjacent stall to peer at the captured dress. Seeing no other option, she steeled herself against thoughts of germs and leaned under the wall to begin the effort of untangling.

"Jo," she began tentatively. "It's none of my business, of course, but why would Zane do this?"

"Because he's a jackass who can't take no for an answer," Jo grumbled.

"Then why are you with him?" Grace asked softly. Jo sighed. "Because he's my jackass and I love him. I've tried not to, really I have, but…" she shrugged, causing the cape around her shoulders to flutter. "I guess we're stuck with each other."

"Stuck," said Grace as she pulled more of the fabric away from the pipes. "I'm sorry, but that makes being with Zane sound like more of a problem than a happy ending."

"See, that's the thing!" Jo tried to turn to Grace for emphasis, but only succeeded in wedging herself against the door frame. "I don't know if I believe in such a thing as a happy ending. Yes, people can have good lives together—you and Henry are proof of that. But nothing is perfect and expecting it to be, with no adjustments or obstacles, is just foolish. Like everything this dress represents—a fairy tale."

"Do you think that's what Zane means by this? That he thinks you and he should be living out some kind of fantasy?" Grace asked. Jo was quiet for several seconds, then answered carefully, as if weighing her confidence in each word.

"No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the idea of anything resembling a real commitment scares him. But once he makes a decision to do something, he goes for it—doubts get pushed aside. I have a harder time letting go of caution."

With one final pull, Grace freed the dress from the plumbing and stood, stepping around to help Jo squeeze out of the stall. "Well," she said. "I can only speak for me, but it seems that what works best in relationships is how people complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. You being cautious may save Zane from making mistakes sometimes. And him being more impulsive may help you not get, well, stuck." She quickly washed her hands. "And speaking of stuck, the scanner is programmed and running. Shall we go see if we can get you out of that dress?"

**A/N**: **Wondering if it's really possible for a hoop skirt to get stuck on bathroom plumbing? I can attest to the fact that it is. I wore a vintage dress with such a skirt (metal hoop and all) for my wedding. As the wedding march began to play, I made a last pit stop in the restroom and got stuck. My poor mother had to do what Grace did in this chapter—shimmy under the stall wall to free me. They played the march through twice before I finally headed down the aisle…**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

As You Wish (Chapter 3)

Jo sat in the lobby of Zane's hotel, tucked out of view from the meeting room he was in. A courier had just delivered the envelope she'd brought for him from Eureka. The meeting was scheduled to end shortly, and she couldn't wait to see his reaction to the envelope's contents.

A few hours before, she'd been breathing a sigh of relief at Henry's discovery of the means by which Zane had transformed her into a child's vision of an enchanted princess. "Nanoparticles!" Henry had exclaimed at the data collected by a detailed scan of her royal garb. "There's a high concentration of them on you that is creating a field around your body. It's like an adaptation of cloaking technology—the field is causing light to bend. But instead of masking your appearance, it's producing a different one."

"So, I'm still wearing the clothes I put on this morning…they just look different?" Jo asked.

"Yes, basically. As well as feel different, as if they actually have the shape you see. Like...the hallucinations we all suffered when the PTSD device malfunctioned." Jo grimaced. She remembered just how real her hallucination of a sappily romantic Zane had seemed.

Henry turned to Grace. "This is an incredible breakthrough. I can't believe what Zane has done here. With this technology, we could go well beyond trying to hide the electromagnetic signal of an object to changing the very nature of how it's perceived…" They walked away, excitedly pointing out different aspects of the scanner data.

"Hey!" Jo called. They turned around. "Still a princess here—can we fix that before you go do your science thing?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Henry said distractedly. "Well, first we need to determine the source of the particles. Then we can try to turn the field generation program off."

"_Try_?" Jo squeaked. "You mean you might not be able to reverse this?"

"No, no," said Grace soothingly. "The nanoparticles will run out of power eventually." At Jo's horrified expression, she hurriedly added, "But I'm sure we can shut them down before then."

Jo dropped her head into her hands. "He is a _dead_ man," she muttered. Raising her head, she added "And you know what? I don't care. I don't need Zane—I don't need any man. I'll just…get a dog. Or a cat. Or maybe both. But he? Is dead."

Smiling, Henry patted Jo's shoulder. "I think we can correct this without shortening anyone's lifespan." At Jo's glare, he held his hands up. "But I leave that to you. In any event, the scan showed that the greatest concentration of particles is around your waist." He reached toward her then stopped, gesturing instead in the general vicinity of Jo's midsection. "Is there anything unusual there? Other than the dress, of course."

Jo patted around her waistline. At a lump she hadn't noticed before, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a crumpled ball of paper. The note from Zane's front door. Wordlessly, she extended it to Henry, who waved it away. "No one else should touch that—just put it down on the scanner plate." As soon as the paper touched the machine, data began flowing across its display screen. "That's it—he embedded the particles into the paper. They must have activated when you touched it. Once the field built up, bam—instant princess."

"So can you turn it off?" Jo asked worriedly. "Let's try this…" Henry pressed a few buttons until a blue light shone brightly from the scanner. "That should reverse the polarity of the field."

For a few moments, nothing happened. Then the princess dress shimmered briefly and slowly faded away, leaving Jo standing in her workday black suit. Her feet, however, were still clad in the sparkly pumps. "Um," said Henry. "Those will fade too…eventually."

Sighing, Jo said "Good enough. Now, you said the particle field was programmed, right?" Henry nodded. "Can it be reprogrammed, say to produce a different image?"

"I certainly hope so," he answered. "If we can program the field at will, there is no end to what this technology could be used to do."

"Great. So this is what I want you to do…" After Jo explained her idea, Henry and Grace both balked. Grimly, Jo told them that they could do either as she asked or have Zane's death or mutilation on their heads. They were quiet for a beat, then Grace gave in. "All right, we can do that. After all, I spent a half hour lying on a grungy restroom floor tonight thanks to Zane. I suppose a little payback couldn't hurt."

"Wonderful," Jo answered. "I'll book my flight."

_EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA_

The sound of chattering voices alerted Jo that Zane's meeting had ended. Stepping back, she peeked around a corner of the lobby toward the meeting room. Several men exited first, followed by Zane and two women, a matronly brunette and a tall blonde.

For a moment, Jo's breath caught as she looked at Zane. Since arriving in Eureka, the terms of his parole had prevented him from leaving town without an armed escort. She knew he'd hated traveling with a guard so much that he'd eventually stopped volunteering for any offsite projects. This trip was therefore a benchmark of sorts, a sign that his post-pardon life had truly begun.

The responsibility sat well on him. He looked at ease in the group of executives and scientists, with an air of maturity he rarely showed in Eureka. Watching him, Jo felt a wave of pride. Second chances in life were rare—Zane knew that, and wasn't wasting the one he'd been given.

She was just about to call out to warn him against opening the envelope under his arm when the blonde woman stepped forward to block his path. Even with just a side view, Jo could tell her expression was predatory. With a wide smile, she leaned toward Zane, touching him lightly on the shoulder. Zane smiled politely, shaking his head no in response to a question Jo couldn't hear. The woman pouted, stroking her fingers down his arm.

Jo was startled to hear what sounded like a low growl coming from her own throat. Suddenly Zane's decision to punch the officer who'd groped her at GD seemed entirely sensible. It took all of Jo's willpower not to rush out and push the woman away—hard.

Zane stepped back from her and pointed to the envelope, clearly saying something about having work to do. When he headed for the elevators, the woman stared after him, then followed in a separate car. Jo was right behind her.

Stepping out onto Zane's floor, she saw him open the door to his room. The woman approached from the other direction, calling out to him. Since he was facing away from her, Jo couldn't see his expression, but she saw his posture stiffen. The blonde stopped just short of Zane, then stepped backward into his room with a seductive smile.

That was it for Jo. She closed the distance between them in seconds and grabbed the woman's arm. "Security," snapped Jo. "We've had reports of unauthorized visitors on this floor. I'm going to have to ask you to leave—_now._"

The woman protested, pushing back against Jo. "Pardon me, but this is a private matter. I am _with_ this gentleman-" She broke off, eyes wide. Jo followed her gaze back to Zane.

He was leaning back against the hallway wall, laughing. As the women continued to stare, however, he looked around to see what had captured their attention. That's when he noticed his clothes.

Instead of the sportcoat and jeans he'd been wearing, Zane was now attired in a closely fitted black dinner jacket with braided epaulets at the shoulders. His pants were dark red with a black stripe running down the outside of each leg. Medals decorated his chest and the tan shoes he'd had on were now shiny black boots. Also, although he couldn't see it, his beard was gone and his face was framed by longer hair brushed over his ears.

Lifting the envelope the courier had delivered earlier, Zane looked at it then at Jo. "Shit," he said wryly. "Henry?" She nodded, a grin starting to spread over her face.

The blonde backed away, gaping at them. "I'll just…leave you two alone," she said quickly, then scooted into an open elevator car.

Zane shook his head, then started to grin too. "I take it you were pretty pissed at me?" he asked.

"Obviously," answered Jo smugly.

"So, are you going to make me parade through the hotel in this get-up, or can we go inside and talk?" he asked.

"Well," Jo said consideringly. "I should make you do the perp walk, especially since you sort of look like a bellhop. I was going for Prince Charming, but that sweet purity thing really wouldn't work on you." She pointed inside the hotel room. "But for now? Get in there. We need to talk."

Zane went in and sat on the bed, watching Jo carefully. With a quick grin, he patted the duvet cover. "Ever want to do it with royalty?" he asked.

Jo crossed her arms and ignored his comment. "You opened the envelope—did you read my letter?" He shook his head, then pulled a folded paper out.

On one side was his note to Jo from the morning. On the other, she'd written:

_I'm not a princess. I'm tough, stubborn and tend to overreact. _

_You're no prince yourself. You're snarky, defensive and have lousy judgment sometimes (most of the time)._

_I don't need your protection, but I do need you._

_You can control the TV remote in the living room. I'm in charge of the one for the bedroom (don't trust you with it)._

_I'll keep the bathroom counter clear so long as you don't leave your shoes everywhere._

_Neither one of us can cook, so we leave food to Vincent._

_I promise to do everything I can to make this work._

_Deal?_

_Love, Jo_

Zane stared at the letter for a while before looking up. "Deal," he said softly. "You've got my promise too."

Jo gave him a smile that would do any princess proud. "Great. Now get up, I'm hungry."

"Room service?" he asked hopefully.

"Not a chance. I made reservations for the most prominent table at the nicest restaurant in town. There will be pictures, so get a move on, your highness," she said and, with a brief kiss, pushed Zane out the door.

~ _fin_ ~


End file.
